Kenneth's Thaipage

January 15th me and two friends left Sweden to go around the world... for real! The final destination was Australia where all three of us were going to study for a year, but we had decided to do a bit of travelling before school started.

First stop was Thailand, a country well known for it's beaches and fantasy islands. I remember how much I longed for some sun after the Swedish winter we had experienced.

The picture shows (from left to right) me, Roland and Stefan at a viewpoint in Khao Sok National Park, southern Thailand.

          Bangkok was really a busy city with a lot of traffic. We got a room on Kausan Road, left our
          backpacks there and went out to have a look at some temples. We saw some nice Buddha statues
          along the way and the breathtaking Grand Palace with gold and pearls all over the roof. All over the
          city we saw buddhist monks which really added to the feeling that we were far from home.

          The next day we took a tour with a longboat on the city river. The tour was great and we got to see
          a different perspective of Bangkok. We also got to see a floating market and a reptile farm with a show
          where a guy caught snakes with his mouth. Just outside the farm were two cute monkeys playing
          around happily with each other.

After two days in Bangkok we took a nightbus down south to Krabi, where we took a boat to the beautiful island of Phi Phi.

We got us a bungalow and headed for the beach where we had a refreshing swim in the crystal clear water. On Phi Phi we also teamed up with Wojtek, another friend who was there on vacation. Wojtek and I were both heading for studies in Adelaide.

The beaches were amazing and I really had a good and relaxing time on the island.

          We spent a couple of days just chilling on the beaches and exploring the little town. The island was really
          small so there were no cars. The only noise came from an occasional longboat (wooden long boat with
          an outside engine) transporting tourists. There was a viewpoint on one of the mountains of the island and
          we decided to have a look. To get to the viewpoint we had to climb a staircase that turned out to consist
          of 338 steps. Consider that with the fact it was some 40 odd degrees and you may start to understand
          the effort needed to get up there...

          The views awaiting us on the top was outstanding! Definitely worth the sweat. You could see all the
          island and the contrasts of the yellow beaches and the greenish waters. Totally awesome.

          We also did some snorkelling around small nearby islands. It was truly fantastic with lots of colourful
          fishes and coral reefs. The fish came really close and one small yellow and black fish even bit me.
          They went crazy when we tried to feed them :)   The snorkelling trip also took us to a small uninhabited
          fantasy island called Bamboo island. It consisted of beach and jungle and you could probably walk
          around it in less than an hour.

The time on Phi Phi was really great and definitely one of the highlights of the trip.

          Eventually we wanted to move on though, and next stop was Koh Pha Ngan on the east coast. To get
          there we went by a bus, which clearly had seen it's better days, through the country. The last 100 km we
          had to switch from a bad bus to an even worse one to get us to the coast. The driver did quite a few
          kamikaze overtakes, but after the first ones I just closed my eyes when he went out in the other lane :)

Surviving that and the following trip with an old ferry, we arrived in the evening. On the ferry we had been offered a fair prize for a bungalow so we went there immediately. We didn't expect that much but the the area, called "Sundance", turned out to be great. Our house is the first one on the picture and the beachfront is right there, behind Stefan.

The beachfront, by the way, was wonderful with palm trees, a net for beachvolley and a chill out area. The trail to town, along the beach, was also something special.

Of course we had to go to the famous "Full Moon Party" when on Koh Pha Ngan and it was really a big
thing. Huge loudspeakers pouring music out on a mile-wide beach. Bars, discos and people everywhere!

          After taking turns being food poisoned we all agreed to forget our plans to go up north to Chiang Mai.
          Spending 36 hours in a train, having bad stomachs, wasn't going to be a nice experience so we decided
          to go back west.

Taking a local bus instead of a tourist one we got to see a little of the "genuine" Thailand, which was great!

Back in Krabi, on the west coast, we headed to the beach of Ao Nang, where we took a longboat to a resort called Rai Lay Beach. You could only go to Rai Lay by boat, since it was totally surrounded by steep cliffs. You can see one end of the beach on the picture.

If Phi Phi was a paradise for divers, this seemed to be like a Mecca for climbers. There were lots of steep walls to climb and the weather was perfect. I just stayed on the beach though, since climbing isn't my thing.

          There were actually four beaches available in the area so there were plenty of room. There were also
          monkeys living on the island and they weren't directly shy... we saw a flock of them steal a bag of fruit
        out of the hands of a startled girl!

          We saw some amazing scenery on those beaches, sights I had earlier only dreamt about or seen in travel
          magazines. Like for example longboats parked close to the shore that got stranded when the sea
          withdrew. The strongest memory from that place though, was when I got me a Thai massage on the
        beach, in the shadow of a tree, just a few steps from the sea. Especially since I knew there were snow
        and cold weather back home :)

But we wanted more out of this trip. We felt like getting out into the rainforest for some trekking. A bus
took us halfway through the country to a national park called Khao Sok.

          The next day had even more action to offer. We started off with a two hour elephant ride out into the
          forest. It was almost magic riding there like Mowgli or something. A bit into the forest we ran into a
          waterfall where we took a shower. Then it was up onto the elephant again and back. Great experience!

But that was only the start of the day... right after the ride we went for a canoe safari with the same guide
we had the day before. That was a calm journey where we got to see Kingfisher and other cool birds.

After the canoeing we spent a couple of hours waiting at the bus station for the bus. We had to be in Surat Thani on the east coast by night since we needed to take a connecting bus to Bangkok. No bus showed up in Khao Sok though. We ended up paying a local guy for taking us on the back of his pickup to Surat Thani.

          We made it on time to the connecting bus and went over the night in the coldest bus I have ever
          been in.
          Well in Bangkok we went out into the city during the day, waiting for our flight... it was really a lazy day
          since I hadn't slept that good (at all...) on the freezing bus. The most productive thing I did was buying
          me a banana...

The day finally came to an end and completely satisfied with my Thai experience I had a smile on my
face as the plane took off. Next destination: Auckland.

My Thai Experience